Subject: (urth) Andrew and Marc and Silk and Horn and Babbie

From: Dan'l Danehy-Oakes <ddanehy at siebel.com>
Date: Thu, 23 Jan 2003 16:38:55 +0000

The one thing we all seem to agree upon is that the weird scene
at the end of OBW is a major turning point, and key to any full
interpretation of _SS_.

I've never been quite able to buy Marc's Horn-into-Babbie 
reading of this scene for practical reasons -- in fact, 
the classic Lupine problem of authorship -- who _writes_ 
this scene? If we accept Marc's reading, by the time of 
narration, Horn is "gone" from the Narrator's body. But 
it's written from the point of view of the person who 
primarily experiences ... whatever it is. Silk can not know 
what Horn's departure feels like from Horn's point of view; 
yet in this reading, that is exactly what is being narrated.

Andrew's reading has some merit. I'm particularly whacking
myself on the head over his reading of Evensong -- this 
is so true to the basic Silk pattern; with Evensong, the
Narrator is (in a sense) going through the whole Hyacinth
experience all over again, in a kind of mirror-image. 

I'm not going to dispute Andrew's reading at this point; 
I think it warrants some time. It certainly answers some
questions, but it raises others ... in particular, I have
trouble seeing how the Babbie _persona_ could be extricated
back out from the Silk/Horn/? melange and put back into 
Babbie. (But then, perhaps he carries some Hornishness 
with him ... which would explain the astrally travelling 
Babbie scene which Marc has indicated.) 

Possible areas for investigation to support or deny
this reading:

o Is the Narrator's attitude toward Babbie significantly
  different when Babbie returns in RttW from what it was
  in OBW? If so, how?
o Can we disentangle the "I" references in the scene at
  the end of OBW in a way that makes some kind of artistic
  sense? Is there a pattern to who is speaking when?
o Why would the Babbie persona be necessary to save the 
  Narrator at that point? By which I mean, why Babbie
  specifically? And what happened to Babbie while this
  was going on?
o Does this help to explain how Babbie got back to the 
  Main continent of Blue?

--

---

From: Andrew Bollen <abollen at internode.on.net>
Date: Thu, 23 Jan 2003 23:46:44 +0000

Blattid wrote:

>I have trouble seeing how the Babbie _persona_ could be extricated
>Babbie.

Need this be very different than Mucor's possessions, Mora/Fava's? Perhaps
the agency is actually Mucor (although I don't know of any instance where we
are told she cause a "3rd party possession".)

> Why would the Babbie persona be necessary to save the
>  specifically?

Well, if the agency was in fact Mucor, this makes sense. More generally,
Babbie is strong (SilkHorn is exhausted), brave (Silk is falling into his
Silkish pit of despair), and devoted to Horn.

> And what happened to Babbie while this
>  was going on?

Perhaps he's sleeping? (I know, Babbie is nocturnal.)

--